Former NFLPA president can't watch football anymore, dubs owners '(expletives)'

[papasmurfbell]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/former-nflpa-president-can-t-watch-football-

anymore--dubs-owners---expletives--151439128.html

Domonique Foxworth is a smart man. The former NFL Players Association president enrolled at Harvard Business School this past September upon retiring from the league after six seasons. When he speaks, people still listen, and he spoke bluntly about his disdain for both the sport he loved and NFL owners.

In an interview on WNYC's "Death, Sex & Money" podcast, Foxworth discussed the latter two of those topics extensively, expressing a fondness for the notoriety he enjoyed and paychecks he cashed as a young defensive back for the Broncos, Falcons and Ravens from 2005-11. But things change.

A key member of the NFLPA in some capacity since 2007 — as a player representative, vice president and ultimately the union's president until this past February — Foxworth's direct dealings with owners on important issues both on (concussions) and off the field (domestic violence) formed his strong opinions.

"Like I knew that this wasn't right," he told host Anna Sale of the NFL's approach to such serious matters.

Sale

: "Domonique retired from the NFL in 2012. The sport made him a millionaire. But as president of the players union, he also negotiated with the team owners and saw close-up their cost benefit calculations about the safety of his and his teammates’ brains."

Foxworth

: "I don’t want to paint all the owners with a broad brush, because I’ve developed some relationships with some who, I don’t think they’re, like, a------s, to put it that way. But I think a lot of them are, honestly."

...

Sale

: "Do you enjoy watching football now?"

Foxworth

: "Nope."

Sale

: "No? Do you just not watch?"

Foxworth

: "Nah. I have a hard time watching injuries. It’s difficult for me to watch guys get knocked unconscious. The strategy and the mental part of football, I still love. It’s a lot more like chess, and these calculated decisions, than these other sports are. And I love that about football, and I love that about business, and I love that about chess. But, the play-by-play guys don’t know what they’re talking about, which is shocking considering there’s so many ex-athletes, and maybe they just simplify it for the sake of the common fan, but I can’t listen to them. Most of them. Because they don’t know what they’re talking about, and it makes it hard for me to watch, like, no that’s wrong. And I want to see the entire field, so I can, like, really analyze the chess match. TV copy, I can’t—the angles that they have, what I enjoy about football, I can’t see."

Again, Foxworth was the union chief as recently as seventh months ago, when his eligibility ran out as a retired player and Cardinals offensive tackle Eric Winston replaced him. The criticism of TV broadcasts is nothing new, since guys like Foxworth spent years evaluating the sport from silent aerial coach's tapes, but the fact that a recent NFLPA president described "a lot of" NFL owners as "a------s" and can no longer watch the sport — in part— because, "I have a hard time watching injuries," seems significant.

Foxworth has been outspoken on important issues facing the NFL in the past, most recently in the final month of his NFLPA presidency on Michael Sam's announcement regarding his sexual orientation.

"I feel pretty strongly that it won't be an issue," Foxworth said of Sam ina February interview with the NFL Network's Albert Breer. "But even a couple years ago, we were having conversations with players about it, we've had those publicly. Those are good conversations for our society. I've always felt like the great thing about sports is you can take these social issues, and put them on the forefront."

 

Given the public relations nightmare the NFL has endured in recent weeks, the sport could use an intelligent, business-savvy voice like Foxworth's, but, then again, that might require him to watch football.

[JPPT1974]

Sounds like a smart man. But he will need to watch the NFL again. As that is will be in need of watching it. Who knows, he could be the NFL Commissioner.

[papasmurfbell]

I don't think the owners want Foxworth. He is pro player.